Add a + / - option next to steel path and let us choose the percent increase in EHP

[Tenno_Cobra]

Not gonna waste ages discussing this, as it's imho a very simple fix that would fix most of the issues players have with Steel Path currently. Just add a +/- icon next to the steel path selection in the UI, with each tick removing or adding 50% increase.

• Find enemies too tanky with 150% increased EHP, drop it down three notches to 0%.
• Like the game as it is now, leave it as it is...
• You're a tryhard and you want to push your build to the limit, set the slider all the way to 500%.
• Increase the efficiency of the mod / ressource boosters based on the settings of the sliders.
• Increase the % drop of Steel Essence based on the % increase.

Congrats, people can now play steel path and modulate their challenge as they see fit. Some of the advantages of this approach to difficulty tweaking:

• No further playerbase dissolution. People can play together in the gamemode regardless of the chosen %EHP (although game would try and match people with the same % together if possible).
• Endless players can finally start at lvl 150 without having to worry about enemies having lvl 500+ EHP values and taking ages to kill, making true endless runs kinda impossible. Likewise, you can tweak the % on an individual misison basis if one particular mission type is kicking your ass. Want +500% capture mission , but +100% defense mission, now you can...
• Solo players can more easyly handle the steel path as they can lower the ehp to cope with bigger groups of enemies and making it more likely they will managed to keep defense target objective safe while solo.
• People with non-optimal builds and non-optimal frames stand a fighting chance. People with optimal builds can push the slider all the way and go full tryhard mode.
• People can, gasp,do missions where they fight enemies and stay for more than five waves instead of running the whole starchart skipping every non-mandatory confrontation and exiting after 5 waves.
• Steel Path becomes a gamemode people can run as their "new home" / "new starchart", instead of being a chore you do once and never touch again.

Couple quick fire suggetions :

1 - Fix sharkwing enemies , night now they have full level and ehp, even though you tweaked down archwing enemies... Especially fun when you get an exterminate mission tileset where half the enemies spawn underwater and you litterally spend half an hour killing twenty of these.

2 - Fix extractors and some defense targets still having very low HP values (extractors have like 8000 hp). Meanwhile, stuff like Fortuna Vehicules you have to protect have like two millions hp lol.

3 - Give us sun decoration for completing full starchart . Making a starchart diaporama without the center of it (the sun) sucks...

4 - Increase the % drop of Steel Essence so it's actually acquirable in a reasonable manner.

5 - Rebalance factions specificially for steel path. There's no reason why Grineers are absolute tanks, Corpus are kinda squishy and Infested are barely any stronger than they are in normal mode. All factions should feel about the same power level in hard mode.

6 - Think the drop chance and mod chance boosters are currently not enough to warrant playing the game mode. I still finish most missions with barely any mods, credits , ressources, especially since people actually skip most of the conflict.

[Hypernaut1]

They could at least do this for the simulacrum. 

[OmegaVoid]

On 2020-07-13 at 3:30 PM, Tenno_Cobra said:

Fix sharkwing enemies , night now they have full level and ehp, even though you tweaked down archwing enemies... Especially fun when you get an exterminate mission tileset where half the enemies spawn underwater and you litterally spend half an hour killing twenty of these.

The Sharkwing enemies are fine.

I've done several solo Steel Path runs of some Sealab nodes 'cos I like that tileset -- neither Odonata Prime nor Amesha had difficulty surviving, and neither Cyngas, Larkspur nor Imperator Vandal had difficulty killing the enemies. Even with my ropey aiming skills.

(Full disclosure: my Cyngas has a Riven; my Larkspur and Imperator Vandal don't, though.)

Sorry to say it, but if it took you a long time to kill things in the Sharkwing sections it's because either your builds or your aim is bad.

On 2020-07-13 at 3:30 PM, Tenno_Cobra said:

Just add a +/- icon next to the steel path selection in the UI, with each tick removing or adding 50% increase.

Introducing sub-tiers into Steel Path would suck for matchmaking. I mean...

On 2020-07-13 at 3:30 PM, Tenno_Cobra said:

People can play together in the gamemode regardless of the chosen %EHP (although game would try and match people with the same % together if possible).

But if a player chose +0% extra eHP, and got +150% modifiers anyway, what's the point? It's bad for them 'cos they didn't get the levels they wanted, and it's bad for the rest of the team 'cos they'd get a player who implicitly wouldn't be able to contribute much to the mission.

Conversely, if the levels always get downgraded to the squad member with the lowest selection, the geared-up players would not get the tougher fight which Steel Path exists to provide. 

On 2020-07-13 at 3:30 PM, Tenno_Cobra said:

Steel Path becomes a gamemode people can run as their "new home" / "new starchart", instead of being a chore you do once and never touch again.

For some players Steel Path does seem to have become their "new starchart", though. Diluting the Steel Path experience for those who enjoy is not the way to go.

I absolutely support having a normal +100-level Star Chart in addition to Steel Path (personally I'd very much like to have a +50 level as well, so there's no gap in "difficulty selection"). I believe there are plenty of players who are over-powered for the regular Star Chart, but not ready for Steel Path.

That would become my normal preference, with Steel Path remaining the hardcore option for when I want to use my best gear, try out cheese strats, and stress-test builds. Possibly in the long run Steel Path will become my normal Star Chart too... but for there to be a long run, I need to be catered to in the meantime.

On 2020-07-13 at 3:30 PM, Tenno_Cobra said:

Give us sun decoration for completing full starchart . Making a starchart diorama without the center of it (the sun) sucks...

This is a great idea.

[Tenno_Cobra]

Again, i'm not proposing further dissolution in playerbase. A +50% player would still be matchmade with a +150% player if there are no other open games with similar % available (but game would try to match +150% users with other users of similar percentages as much as possible. Also, only the player would be afffected by his own %, it's your own personal multiplier for the gamemode basically, that you can raise and lower based on personal preferences and your ability to clear the content with said handicap. Obiviously, only your kills would give the increased % in drops, so you have no interest in choosing a 500% modifier if your build can't handle it and everyone else is doing the killing due to your own settings.

[Lutesque]

On 2020-07-13 at 4:30 PM, Tenno_Cobra said:

• Increase the efficiency of the mod / ressource boosters based on the settings of the sliders.
• Increase the % drop of Steel Essence based on the % increase.

Again with The Rewards 😐

i thought you people just wanted the Slider just to set the Enemy's level.

On 2020-07-13 at 4:30 PM, Tenno_Cobra said:

 

6 - Think the drop chance and mod chance boosters are currently not enough to warrant playing the game mode. I still finish most missions with barely any mods, credits , ressources, especially since people actually skip most of the conflict.

The Purpose of The Steel Path isnt to give exclusive rewards to anyone. The whole point of The Steel Path is to increase enemy levels (because Apparently thats what people kept asking for).... 

If you dont find Steel Path Rewarding... then do it... clearly you arent enjoying it if you feel like DE needs to bribe you to get you to play it.... better to not do it rather than adding exclusive rewards that make people feel like they have to do it.

 

[Tenno_Cobra]

Bump since it seems exactly what I predicted is happening... Steel Path is pretty much deserted now. Adding that slider would give vets more reason to make the mode their default starchart, where they do most of their content instead of something PPL turn off and never return to the minute they clear it because enemies are a chore to take down and it makes missions much longer than they should be.